With a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Steering Committee of the COVID-19 Research Programme chaired by The Research Council (TRC) aimed to provide researchers in Oman with technical and financial support in order to facilitate high quality research to discover evidence-based solutions for the ongoing global challenge. Within TRC’s COVID-19 Research Programme, a new commissioned programme launched in March 2020, 3 proposals from Ministry of Health secured funding.

1. Detection of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Oman using ELISA test. Why do some patients develop severe illness while others do not? (Dr Iman Nasr)

2. Clinical Characteristics of Suspected and Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 admitted at Al-Nahdha Hospital, Oman: a cross-sectional descriptive study (Dr Saud Al-Harthi)

3. Identifying novel COVID-19 specific miRNA’s as a potential therapeutic target (Dr Zuhair Al-Sulti)